They may as well declare Friday a State holiday so everyone can go out and enjoy the ‘Rajini Effect’. Getting tickets might be next to impossible for the ‘First Day First Show’ phenomenon ruling Indian cinema is a simple social behavioural trait even more deeply ingrained in the modern Tamil culture of movie stars being far larger than life. The next best thing would be a city tour of the theatrical release to spy fan behavior, complete with its ritualistic milk baths and aarathi, maybe to thank the Gods for keeping the lure of live cinema going in theatres at a time when you can get most things at the touch of a button on your home screen.
No one would begrudge the Superstar his day in the Sun in a new release that seems to have become a hit even in its gestation period - such is the power of multimedia these days. The numbers and the counting of cash at the tills may be super relevant to the film industry, fuelled solely by the power of moolah in exchange for entertainment. But for those of us who have not seen for ages a Rajini movie in the confines of even a modern, multiplex with all the creature comforts of popcorn and cola stored comfortably in seat receptacles, the Rajini phenomenon is a greater draw than the allure of the mythical heroes of the silver screen.
The star deserves a break too. All the legends do. They have been with us so long that what we do not wish for them is life’s uncertainties. You can’t have the Superstar counting the pennies after a few flops as the wells of creativity run dry in the course of decades. To find a relevant theme for a stirring comeback in terms of total box office success for actors who get straitjacketed in clichés is far more challenging than can be imagined. It is the skill of the writers and directors that is on test far more than the legend, who is a medium of this great gamble called movie production that is so reliant on public taste, who no one can predict anyway.
The theme, as sussed out through all the hoopla, may be an old one, a recurring Robin Hood scenario of a beneficent don but it gets a life of its own in the suitability of the Superstar in this phase of life when he has to move on in his cinema avatar from the permanent young man surrounded by whip cracking sound effects of the movement of his index finger held out as a warning sign to his opponents. There is only that much scope for an old trick. Cinematographers of Kollywood, who are a byword in creativity through the lens, with their perspective invariably stunning in the revelations they have to offer the aesthete, or even the cineaste who is more accustomed to running an expert eye on the roll of the reel, should know better.
There is always the hope that even amid the masala film making tactics of popular Tamil cinema, aimed more at connecting to the masses and which has got so used to the Rajini ‘ishtyle’ as they call it, would find the room to make a more meaningful modern movie hit. The narrative has to be somewhat deeper, with all the bells and whistles a mere enhancement of a known brand. Just as you can’t have a Jackie Chan hit without the elaborate fight sequences, so too must the old cinematic tricks of the audio enhancing the ‘punch’ dialogues that Rajini leaves hanging in the air like an ancient moral lesson spelt out by a favourite teacher. But we seek more. A role befitting his age is what we are told as the movie nears the halls where the box office is already tingling with anticipation of this promised mega hit aimed at thousands of screens in the new tactics of early saturation to take the punter’s money before the freshness of the phenomenon of publicised release fades.
It might be an exaggeration to say Rajini is a force of nature more than a movie star, but there is no denying an aura that has been built up over the decades since the days of playing the antagonist to the hero Kamal Haasan in Apoorva Ragangal.
Forty-one years have rolled by in historic decades in the life of the State and nation and the legends have endured. Even so, it is in a search for relevance that Kabali may find its fulfillment in, which is why it may turn out to be a landmark film.
